9
“ F la m e s fr o m A s h e s "
s
( C tn tn m tJ fr» m page J . )
assistance the whole woods would he in
flames. Just then she saw, sw iftly climb
ing over the wall, the tall figure o f the
man in whose despite she had set the fire.
H e swung a shovel above his head and
with each whack the fire had ceased and
a blackened area marked the place where
the implement was brought down.
Grim and
angry he worked away,
breaking the line o f fire and paying no
attention to Mary, who follow ed after,
stamping out the little flames which ever
and anon started trp where the fire had
been checked.
>
A s the fire reached the wall thi, ob
stacle checked the otherwise certain sweep,
but there were hushes growing in and out
which readily took fire and, burning in
the crevices could not readily be smoth
ered by impact o f the shovel.
Dick dropped this implement and grab
bing the pail rushed with all speed to a
pond at a most uncomfortable distance
and returning applied the water sparingly
as possible to the wicked little flames he
could not reach in any other way. Again
and yet again he went for water. As he
returned the third time, breathless and
weary, he saw that the wind had changed
and the flames were spreading in the other
direction, toward Mary's house.
Mary
had taken up the shove! and was beating
at the fire.
U p to this time neither had uttered a
sound, but had silently fought the flames
as if each had been alone and as far apart
in person as they were in spirit
N o w silence was broken as M ary utter
ed a scream o f terror and dismay. H er
clothing was on fire.
* Dick instantly flew to the rescue, catch
ing the bla/ing skirts in hi3 bands and
smothering the flames against his own
stout woolen garments. Then he seized
the precious pail o f water and bidding her
lie down he sucreeded in putting out the
fire but not until her clothing was much
burned and his own hands and face had
received many a painful blister. *
" O h ! Dick, this is d readful!” were the
words with which M ary broke her twen
ty years’ vow.
Dick made no answer, but picked up his
shovel and began whacking at the fire.
H e was angry at Mary, at Constance, at
the Republican party, at Blaine, at the
American electorate, at the whole world,
including himself. H e felt, too, a kind o f
unworthy satisfaction in being an injured
innocent and in the certain knowledge
that M ary could but recognize the fact.
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d eve and back w h ich n r* h a rm on iou sly edited w ith e x tra
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For an hour they retreated before the
flames, battling their way inch by inch.
But titer were steadily reducing the
breadth o f the front they had to fight and
getting nearer to the spring which would
prove their ally.
“ Oh ! Dick !" M ary suddenly exclaimed
“ The fire is spreading over yo.tr field !"
Dick, with his tcetli set, was whacking
away at the fire and as before, he made
no answer.
"D ic k !” Mary cried again. “ Go ho:r.c
and save your own house.’’
“ Bring out two pails,” Dick command
ed. “ W e can carry water now."
“ But D ick! your own house will catch
in a few minutes.”
“ Unless you want IsHh houses burned
down you will fetch the two nails!" was
the rejoinder, between whacks o f the
shovel.
“ Let my house g o ! It ’s all my fault!”
M ary wailed. “ Go and save your own f*
“ W ill you get the pails?" Dick demand
ed, with a mighty emphasis on the first
word.
M srv departed on the run and soon re
turned with the pails and with these the
fire was soon checked.
“ N o w run in the house before yon catch
your death o f c o ld !" Dick commanded,
turning to go.
“ I'll go and help save your house!”
M aty responded hopefully.
“ Can't be don e!" Dick responded short
ly. “ It will be on fire before I can get
there. I will save what I can. Y tou go
in the house.
H e jumped the fence and ran panting
down the road without looking behind,
where Mary, a sorry figure in burned and
wet rags, followed in breathless baste after
him.
A little brook ran between his house
and the other buildings and here the fire
was bound to stop. But it was clear that
there was no chance o f saving the house
and Dick devoted himself to securing
some o f its contents.
First he carried out the pet birds, clias-
ing out the cat and dog as he did so.
Tl.cn came his legal and commercial
papers, wisely kept in a convenient place
for just such an emergency.
1'hen came
the family portraits and then the library.
M ary had arrived and again they worked
in silence, carrying out books and then
odd pieces of furniture and the thousand
and one little things whose loss would
have been irreparable. A s fast as evety
thing wtas carried out, ,it was carried
across the bridge which spanned the little
brook.
“ Don’ t go again!” M ary exclaimed, as
the flames swept over the roof, “ It's dan
gerous !”
“ I must g o !" Dick said. “ I haven't a
third o f the things y e t!”
“ Let them g o ! Your life is worth more
than the things in there!"
“ I don't know that my life is worth so
much!" Dick said bitterly, thinking that
his house and most o f his goods were
burned without insurance, that he was a
miserable old bachelor without i near rel
ative, that Blaine was elected and the
country going to ruin.
“ I'm going back for a few more tilings,”
he said, starting toward the bridge.
“ Don't g o !
Please don't g o !" Mary
said, follow ing after.
Dick paid no attention, moving toward
the back door, the lintel o f which already
was ablaze. H e was destined, however,
never again to enter the house in which
he was bom.
As he neared the door
M ary threw both arms around his neck
and tightly held him back.
“ You shan’t go in ! You shan’t ! ” she
said and clung with a grasp which nothing
short o f extreme \ iolencc could have
shaken loose.
Dick tried to titter some word o f pro
test, but his utterances did not amount to
much.
For one thing, M ary had him
nearly strangled. For another, while he
was brave enough to have gone into the
burning house, like many another brave
man. he was not altogether displeased at
being prevented, against his will, from
running into danger.
Finally his veins
were jumping in a most unaccustomed
way at having Mary's arms around his
neck and knowing ihat M ary was con
cerned as to Ins safety.
His show o f resistance did not last long
There was a crash and a roar and a col
umn o f sparks mounting to the sky mark
ed the site where the Burton homestead
had stood for a time exceeding the mem
ory o f any living man. The pair retreated
in time to escape the flying embers and
then Dick, seizing a pail, set himself to
the fnrther problem o f preventing the fire
from spreading into other fields.
F o r
tunately it had been hemmed in by stone
walls and the winding brook and only
here and there was his attention required.
M ary still worked by his side in spite o f
his repeated injunctions to go home lest
she take her death o f cold. They bad
not worked long when further effort was
rendered unnecessary by a sudden passing
shower which effectively dampened the
dead leaves; and the fire which Mary had
kindled was a thing o f the past, save for
the smoldering ruins which marked the
spot where late the Burton home had
stood.
The shower brought another necessity—
that o f hastily carrying into the barn the
.rescued goods which had been dumped
helter-skelter upon the ground The work
was soon accomplished, for the amount
saved was not large. Then, in utter wear
iness, they sat down within the shelter
o f the barn and gazed at the smoking ruin
before them.
Mary, who had been too full o f excite
ment and occupation before, now found
time to begin to cry. Covering ber face
with her h.Thds she bent her head and
sobhed aloud.
“ Never mind, Mary,” said Dick, speak
ing kindly for the first time. “ It was- all
an accident and can't be helped now.”
“ O h ! D ic k !" Mary sobbed, "you are too
good, too kind. I have acted dreadfully,
and o h ! it's too bad, too bad !”
Dick looked steadily at the ruins o f the
house in which were bound tip the recol
lection-; o f a lifetime and could not trust
himself to speak.
“ I will pay you for all this.” M ary said.
“ O f course, I can't restore the old home,
but I can pay all the money cost, whatever
it is. I have more than twenty thousand
in notes and bonds and 1 will agree to pay
you anything you say.
I will sign an
agreement right now,” she concluded piti
fully.
“ I won’t take a cent,” Dick responded
energetically, “ f will sell the farm for
whatever it wilt bring and go out W est
and start life anew.”
“ You can’t do it,” M ary said. “ You are
too old.”
“ W h a t!” exclaimed Dick with a jump.
“ I'm not forty years old yet.”
“ I know that,” said Mary. “ You are
only two years older than I am, hut you
are old and I am old and everybody is
old who ever had any part in the only
days o f my life I ever cared for. Every
thing is gone tike that home which now
lies in ashes."
“ A sh es!" exclaimed Dick.
“ Ashes!
W hat has my life but ashes? Every near
relative I have had has been dust and
ashes these many years. M y friends have
died, gone away, grown into new interests
— what remains o f those friendships but
ashes?
The home o f my childhood is
ashes. Once, early in life I felt about my
heart the flames o f as pure and ardent a
love as ever man or youth has felt. That
was long ago. For many years I have
had— a-hes. As you have said, I am now
old."
“ It was I who laid jo u r home in ashes,”
said Mary, crying. “ I will give you a
deed to my house and the farm with it
and go away myself. I was foolish and
wrong, but you know I did not mean any
real harm."
“ I know it, Mary.” said Dick, with a
tittle husky catch in his voice. “ Don't say
anything more about it. It hurts me more
to see you feel bad than it did to lose
the house."
“ H ow can you ever say that,” M ary
said, sobbing afresh, “ after the way I
have treated j-ou for so many years?"
“ Those years are past now, Mary,” said
Dick, with on unsteady voice, “ and if we
can be friends once more. I w ill think
it has cost me little enough
W hy,” lie
suddenly and irrelevantly added, “ there is
a red lantern burning where the green
one was. W hat does that mean?”
“ ft means,” said Mary, rising and look
ing, “ that Abner was mistaken when he
hung out the green light and thit those
awful Democrats have won, after all."
Then, her face still wet with tears, she
gave a little laugh .so like that lie had
heard twenty years before in their thou
sand bantering argument- that Dick stood
still, trembling with emotion.
“ I had invited the marching club to
come out and have »upper Thursday
night,” he said, after a moment's pause.
“ But f guess I'll have to cancel the invi
tation."
“ Don’t.” said Marv. “ Let them come
to my house and I'll see that they are
taken care o f."
Dick nearly fell over in his astonish
ment.
" W h y !” he exclaimed. "Constance said
that you were furiously angry because I
purposed inviting them to my own house.”
“ I was,” M ary admitted. “ But I am
going to try never to be foolish and nar
row again. Haven't I a dozen cousins
and lots o f friends among them* W h y
shouldn't I entertain them? Besides, it
will be your house then
I am going tq
make out a deed and have it recorded,
whether you will or not and I will an
nounce the fact when they come, together
with an unsparing account o f my foolish-
ne-s and spite in setting that fire
They
will come, if not on your invitation, then
on mine.”
-
M ary’s face had brightened a ; she
spoke, for she felt that she had found a
way out o f the difficulty. H er house was
far finer than Dick's had been and she
was giving up her childhood’s home as
he had lost his. Surely he would now
know that she was doing what she could
to atone.
“ 1 don't want your deed," Dick cried
“ I won't take it. I want more than that."
“ I will do any thing I can." said Mary,
hurt and trembling once more.
“ I don’t Want your house, your land r
your money,” Dick said very deliberate!/.
“ I want you.”
N o true woman ever take» a chance o f
making a mistake. “ You mean----- ” she
said falteringly.
“ I mean to ask you the question which
for years I longed to ask.
Then for
other years there were ashes where once
were flames.
N o w from the ashes the
flames have sprung anew. I ask you. will
yott be my w ife?”
“ I will."
“ And you will marry me u-hen I say?"
he asked.
“ I suppose so.”
“ Then I will say to-day. \Ve have let
too many years go by as it is.”
They went to M ary’s house for break
fast just as the alarmed and mystified
servants were preparing to search for
their mistress.
Later in tile day the minister and a very
few friends were called, including the
overjo>-ed and hilarious Constance, and
the next evening the marching club re
ceived the surprise of their lives. Dick
and Mary still live merrily and content
edly on their now united farms and one
voter additional is relied upon to carry
the traditional Burton polities.
But his
father and mother never weary o f telling
him never to be bigoted and always to
remain good-natured in matters political,
as well as in all other matters.
A
A YEAR H
TO PAY
WANT to M l you all aboat our liberal plan o f tarnish-
inf homo« for tbs psopls all over thn coantry on credit
Wt »rant to explain to you how wonder'ully convenient our
credit service is, sad how it gives you from ton t o th irty
month« in which to par for your purchases—how it eaablee
yon to bay a sin «!« articls, or to furnish your hoot* com
plete and to enjoy ths full u n of tba furnith in«« while pay
ing for them in «mail amounts from mouth to month as yon
•am tho money. We charge absolotaly nothing for *h»#
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Ersry salaried man, every wa«e earner, every farmer and
ovary family o f small income in the country should have
this helpfol Credit serrlce. YOtr should have it. We M l alt
about the plan in our Big Fall fa ta l««. W rits for it today.
r
CATALOG NO. 120 FREE
Do no« •pent
fpend a cent for anythin« in th# lin s o f honta fur-
nishii
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f _ n util
t i l you have received thie caU lo«—yo.t caa'k
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